Street Contacts

Being a missionary requires a lot of work and effort.  Nothing can happen until we find someone to teach.  This week on that quest, we talked to 230 people on the street.  The people ranged from kind and receptive to extremely rude.  The experience gave me some insight and the oppurtunity to understand São Paulo a little better.  

São Paulo is the strangest mixture of people and things.  It is probably the city with the most crime and iniquity in Brazil, whilst also being the city with the most churches in the entire world.  Okay, I have no statistical information or proof, but it has got to be true.  There is a church on every corner, in every hole in the ground, 3 on every block.  There are churches next to bars, in bars (really), on top of supermarkets, and in the parks.  There are churches entitled...

"Queen of the Apostles"

"Snowball"

"Jesus, the fragrant and beautiful" 

There are churches in São Paulo that jump and yell, churches that 'cast out demons,' and churches that do animal sacrifices.

Like I said, São Paulo is diverse.  There are people who stop to talk to us, people who run from us, people who are 'in a hurry,' and people who would rather cross 6 lanes of freeway traffic than pass us by.  True story.  

But every day we miraculously find the few who are truly searching for truth.  And when they come and see what we have to offer, and take a tour of the temple grounds, every time, they see and feel why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is very different from the rest.